Class 1 Assignment - QGIS Initiation & Orientation

Concepts & Themes:

This week’s assignment will encompass the following concepts, which will be previewed during the Class 1 lecture orientation:

• Short history of Cartography

• Situate GIS within history of Cartography

• Core spatial concepts in GIS

• Core GIS terminology

• QGIS as robust GIS software

• General Course Orientation

  • Course Introduction
  • Course Syllabus
  • Course Requirements + Expectations
  • Course Calendar
  • Class 1 Agenda
  • Class 1 Lecture

• GIS Orientation

  • What is GIS?
    • GIS stands for either Geographic Information System or Geographic Information Science. Geographic Information System typically refers to the software, like QGIS, we use to create spatial data and to investigate spatial relationships between that data. Geographic Information Science is the framework we use to ask questions about the spatial relationship between data.
  • What is QGIS?
    • From the QGIS website, “QGIS is a user friendly Open Source Geographic Information System (GIS) licensed under the GNU General Public License. QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). It runs on Linux, Unix, Mac OSX, Windows and Android and supports numerous vector, raster, and database formats and functionalities.”
    • QGIS is a desktop GIS. That means you get a program that opens up on your computer as a window with buttons you can click, forms you can fill out to do tasks, and it’s generally a visual interactive experience (as opposed to commandline programming in a terminal). Often this kind of interface is called a Graphical User Interface or GUI (often pronounced “gooey”) for short.
    • QGIS is open source. That means the code is available for you to read or modify, should you choose to, but you don’t have to. What’s the advantage of this? It means anyone can make fixes if something is wrong or anyone can add new features. You don’t have to wait for a paid developer to add something.
      
    • QGIS is an official project of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). “The Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to foster global adoption of open geospatial technology by being an inclusive software foundation devoted to an open philosophy and participatory community driven development.” OSGeo supports and assists open source geospatial projects providing infrastructure and organization as well as conferences and means of communication with the broader public and education.
  • Advantages of QGIS:
    • It’s a robust, powerful desktop GIS
    • Runs on all major platorms: Mac, Linux, & Windows
    • Free of charge, all access (no paid add-ons or extensions)
    • Frequent updates & bug fixes
    • Responsive, enthusiastic community
    • Integration with other geospatial tools & programming languages like R, Python, & PostGIS
    • Access to analysis tools from other established software like GRASS and SAGA
    • Native access to open data formats like geoJSON & GeoPackage
    • Comes in a more than 40 languages, making it easi.e.r to work with a larger vari.e.ty of colaborators
    • Growing use by local, state, federal, and international governments
    • GIS concepts found in QGIS are similar, if not the same, as other GIS software packages including ESRI.

---

Source: QGIS Project

---

Class 1 Lecture:

Note: due to Omicron/Covid University protocol for first two weeks of instruction, all materials and instruction will be conducted online, including Class 1 Lecture.

• To start, before proceeding to the assignment below, watch Lecture 1 - An introduction to Cartography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) & Spatial Technology:

---

Class 1 Reading:

• Typically, each class will feature reading(s) from the course textbook Essentials of Geographic Information Systems. This first week will be an exception: the introductory chapter of the recommended (not required) Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years is assigned.

• Access this first chapter online via THIS LINK

Assignment 1 Data Download:

• Assignment 1 Data Download

Part I - Installing QGIS:

The obvious first step of using a GIS software is to either install it or access an online platform. While there are many online GIS utilities, database frameworks and platforms online, generally robust GIS analysis requires a full package located on a hard drive. In this way, geospatial data operations - many that are significantly memory intensive - can run efficiently. For our purposes, the following instructions are given for both the Mac and Windows operating systems. Both assume a relatively modern, i.e. recent operating system and sufficient disk space.

QGIS Mac Install Process:

• Step 1: Navigate to QGIS landing page:

  • https://qgis.org/en/site/
  

  QGIS Landing Page

  • Point to the Download Now option:
  

  QGIS Download Location

Note: there are two release versions- the Long Term Release (LTR) and the current version. For this course, either version will work well. The upside of the current version is that you have the very latest features; however there may be bugs that appear along the way. The advantage of the LTR version is that its the most stable major release. Weekly instruction and tutorials will be demonstrated using the LTR version of the 3.x platform of QGIS. The current LTR as of 1/22/2022 is as follows:

• The long-term repositories currently offer QGIS 3.16.16 ‘Hannover’.

• Next, download the correct option for your machine:

QGIS for correct OS

Note: there are two options - Official All-in-one, signed installers vs the Alternative Build. Until the latest 3x releases, the Alternative Build was the Official buid. The Alternative Build requires additional packages to be installed alongside QGIS; the now Official 3x installer streamlines this process. In short, use the first Official All-in-one, signed installers if at all possible.

• To determine your operating system, navigate to Finder > About This Mac:

Determine OS version

• Once downloaded, the result will be a disk image file with the extension .dmg:

QGIS Disk Image

• Double-click the .dmg file, accept license declaration and proceed to expansion:

• Slide the QGIS3.X icon to the right atop the Applications folder alias. Once done, QGIS will begin to install on the machine. Expect the application to take slightly less than 2GB hard drive space in the Applications folder:

QGIS Disk Image > Applications Folder

• Installed in Applications folder:

Applications Install

• Double-click the Application. If you get the following error, you can right-click > open to get past the error:

open for correct install

QGIS Windows Install Process:

• Step 1: Navigate to QGIS landing page:

  • https://qgis.org/en/site/
  

  QGIS Landing Page

  • Point to the Download Now option:
  

  QGIS Download Location

Note: there are two release versions- the Long Term Release (LTR) and the current version. For this course, either version will work well. The upside of the current version is that you have the very latest features; however there may be bugs that appear along the way. The advantage of the LTR version is that its the most stable major release. Weekly instruction and tutorials will be demonstrated using the LTR version of the 3.x platform of QGIS (Version 3.16.1 LTR as of 8/29/21).

• Next, download the correct option for your machine:

  • At download options, navigate to the Standalone options section for your Windows machine - 32 bit vs 64 bit. To determine the bit version of your machine, you can check it via the system profile:

  • Windows key (shown in image below) + x > System > Device specifications > System type:

  

  Determine OS version

  • The Standalone Installers:
  

  Standalone Installers

  • As default, the setup application can be opened from Downloads:
  

  QGIS Applications Download

  • Follow the install prompts and accept all default options. Only download the application itself, not the additional sample data packages:
  

  Download Application

  • Once fully installed, a new QGIS folder will be located inside the Programs folder on your machine. To access QGIS for the first time, use Search and then open the application as shown. Once open, you can pin it to your taskbar and/or make an application shortcut for future access in addition to launching application:

  • 

    QGIS Installed

Part II - Installing File Compression Tools:

• Once QGIS is installed, geospatial data will become necessary in order to perform GIS processes. In general, spatial data that is available and accessible will be downloaded via a browser - sometimes from an FTP location, but often as .zip compressed directories. Often build-in compression tools will work simply with a right-click > open action. However, there’s situations where this will not be sufficient. The following utilities - 7 Zip for Windows and Keka for Mac - will suffice:

https://www.keka.io/en/

Windows Zip Utility Install (7 Zip):

• Choose your operating system version from the list at 7 Zip:

7 Zip version for OS

• Download the .exe and expand onto the Windows machine. Once installed, 7 Zip will be available with a right-click > open action.

Mac Zip Utility Install:

• Point the browser to keka.io and download the utility tool:

Mac OS utility tool

• Like QGIS, drag the utility tool icon rightward to the Applications folder: Once done, a right-click > open action will give access to the utility tool to unpack a variety of compressed files and directories:

Application > Applications Folder

• Once done, a right>click > open action will give access to the utility tool to unpack a variety of compressed files and directories:

open for correct install

Part III - The QGIS application interface:

• In order to access and display spatial data within QGIS, the data must first be uncompressed and connected. In this section, we will review the basics of the QGIS data interface. Further, deliverables for the course will often take the form of cartographic PDF exports, i.e. maps. Once data is loaded, it can be symbolized, mapped and exported across a variety of export types, including PDF. This Part III will cover the location of the various capacities needed to accomplish a fundamental workflow: loading spatial data, symbolizing the data and producing cartographic outputs.

• To start, review the core QGIS 3.x interface. To assist, print out the letter sized PDF of the interface handout:

• PDF Interface Handout

QGIS Main Interface

Review the following components that correspond with the numbered interface locations show above:

1. Map Canvas - The main display module for spatial data.
2. Browser Panel - Directory connections and file hierachies.
3. Layers Panel - A stacked display of data within the QGIS project.
4. Toolbars - Various tasks common to typical GIS workflows.
5. Menu Bar - Top level navigation device with drop-down capacity per component.

Note: within the Menu Bar, Plugins is located. This is a critical component of the topline Menu Bar. Here there are two sub-components - the plugins themselves and the Python Console. Throughout the course we will utilize plugins to accomplish certain tasks. Further, many functions within QGIS rely on python in the background which is installed alongside QGIS on the first install.

If you want to learn more about how to script and run python functions for spatial analysis within QGIS, a recommended primer to get started is located as follows:

• PyQGIS 101: Introduction to QGIS Python programming for non-programmers

Managing QGIS Plugins

• Typically a GIS project is launched with at least some data that is inherently spatial - administrative boundaries, points locations, raster base layers, ect. To do this first step, make sure the application is open, the Layers and Browser panels are active (if they are not both active: view > panels > toogle on layers then browser or browser 2:

QGIS Panels

• Next, download the compressed assignment data:

• Assignment 1 Data Download

• Use an compression utility (7 Zip or Keka) to unzip the data and expand the directory. The machine desktop is a good location to place your working directory. Once unzipped, your data structure prior to QGIS should look like the following:

Class 1 Data Uncompressed

• The top level directory c1.natural.earth.data contains the following data:

• ne_110m_admin_0_countries

Natural Earth Admin Dataset

• ne_110m_populated_places_simple

Natural Earth Populated Places Simple Version

• Once organized on your machine, point QGIS to the data. This is accomplished by right-click on the Open Data Source Layer tool from the Toolbar:

QGIS Source Layer Tool

• Both features in the assignment data are vector features, so the data type will be selected as Vector > File > Vector Dataset(s) > file.name.shp:

QGIS Source Layer Tool > Vector Features

Note: its the .shp component of the ‘sidecar’ files listed in the sub-directory that is the critical file to open. Make sure to follow open with add so that the .shp is indeed added to the Map Canvas.

• Repeat the step above, but this time point to the ne_110m_populated_places_simple.shp file located in the sub-directory ne_110_populated_places_simple. The resulting Map Canvas should look like the following:

QGIS Map Canvas

Note: Color symbology per layer is random upon the initial data load in QGIS. We will make simple changes for this assignment. Keep in mind that upcoming assignments will feature much more robust symbol manipulation; for now simple manipulation is warranted.

• Once assignment .shp data is loaded correctly - Populated Places on top of County Administrative Boundaries - immediately save the project via Project > Save As > assignment1.qgs.

Note: There is a compressed project save convention (.qgz) and another that is not compressed (.qgs). Proceed with the uncompressed option.

Part IV - Producing Cartographic Output:

• In the previous Part III, spatial data was loaded into QGIS and then saved as a .qgs file. Note that the .qgs file itself is very small. This file is simply referencing the data sources - all files now in the main directory for the assignment:

  • c1.natural.earth.data.

• Good data hierarchy is important. A simple rule-of-thumb is to keep the data in a sub-directory with .qgs files saved alongside various sub-directories in the main project directory. This keeps everything tiddy and importantly QGIS now knows where everything is located inside the main project directory.

• Typically there is some cartographic output for a project, i.e. the actual map(s). This is the final step to accomplish for Assignment 1. Here we will design a 8“x11” map of country boundaries with populated places. We will alter color and possibly the points symbol; add a simple legend; add a title and author tag. We will also alter the ‘Map Projection’ to gain a better areal representation of the country polygon boundaries (much more on this issue in coming weeks).

• Step 1: Toogle on the New Print Layout tool (4th icon from left) located on the Toolbar:

QGIS Print Layout Toolbar

• Next, set a title for the layout. This produces a completely new, blank space. This new space is the layout space where cartoraphic output will be developed:

Layout Titling

• right-click atop the new blank space and choose Page Properties

Layout Page Properties

• Set the page space to Letter and Landscape Orientation at the right side of the layout interface:

Page Orientation Options

• To finish Step 1, save all work thus far via Layout > Save Project:

Saving QGIS Projects

• Step 2: Toogle on the Add Map tool located on the Toolbox toolbar:

Adding the QGIS current map instance to Layout

• Next, draw out a rectangle just slightly smaller than the Layout Canvas space itself via the Add Map to Layout tool. This will immediately drop the features from the Map Canvas space into the new Layout Canvas.

• Typically this will ‘snap’ the features to a suitable scale. But if you need to make the features ‘smaller’ or ‘larger’ within the layout space, you can do that at the far right Main Properties > Scale (larger number = ‘smaller’ vs smaller number = ‘larger’):

Map Properties > Scale

Note: Scale concepts will be covered in more detail during Class 2.

• Next, we will alter the CRS - Coordinate Reference System, i.e. the ‘Map Projection’. We do this to enhance the ‘shape’ of the features giving a bit more negative space in which to place a legend onto the map page, as well as a title. Most importantly, this enhancement will result in more accurate representation of the ‘shapes’ of countries. This will be done in the same location generally as Map Scale above, just slightly lower on the dialog box. To enact, click the globe icon seen at right below:

QGIS CRS in Map Layout

• Search for the Map Projection known as Robinson. Then subselect Sphere Robinson and apply:

Robinson Map Projection

• At the far left tool panel, you can use the 4th icon from the top - Move Content Tool - to reposition the map features as needed:

Moving Map Features in Map Layout

Note: If you want to learn a bit more about the Robinson Projection, the wiki for the projection is a succinct read with a good historical overview - located HERE

• Step 3: to finish the map design, first consider altering the color and stroke of the country administrative features, as well as the size and/or color of the points. In the example, the populated places will rest atop a simple, more neutral gray. To begin, return to the Map Canvas that will still be open behind the active Layout Canvas. Right-click the populated places feature, navigate to Properties > Symbology. Click Color and make the desired color change.

Map Symbology in QGIS

• Next, revise the country administrative layer in the same way. Return to the Layout Canvas and Refresh utilizing the Refresh Tool on the Navigation Tool Bar:

Refresh View

• Next, drop in a legend item using the Legend Tool at far left via the Toolbox toolbar:

Legend Items

• Unfortunately, the titling in the resulting legend is full of underscores and not as succinct as possible. The easy way to alter this is to rename the layers in Layers Panel at the Map Canvas (right-click > Rename Layer). Here the points features will become simply ‘Populated Places’ and the administration boundaries simply ‘Countries’. The ‘old’ legend can then be cut from the Layout Canvas and replaced with a ‘new’ legend:

Legend Items > Renaming

• The final touch on this map will be a title, data source and author tag. All can be inserted via the Map Label Tool located at the Toolbox toolbar:

Map Titling

• Each item can them be fine-tuned at the far right under Main Properties as long as the targeted item is active in the top Item Panel:

QGIS Map Canvas Items Panel

Part V - Deliverable:

• The final deliverable for Assignment 1 will feature the following items:

• Main Map Frame with Populated Places and Countries symbolized

• A text item for a map title, and another text item for data source and author tag.

• A Map Legend

Map Items in the Panel

• Save the project .qgs, save the Layout and export the cartographic output as PDF from the Layout Canvas:

QGIS Export Options

• The final result should appear similar to the example below. Upload your assignment.1.pdf to the CANVAS location for the first class assignment. Save the project directory with all project materials in a location you’ve set aside for completed QGIS projects for the course.

Class 1 Assignment Map Anatomy Example

• Refer to the following 3 map submission examples for further guidance/inspiration.

Note: in the first two maps linked below, the chosen map scale results in a ‘run-on’ of populated places along the map page edges both left and right. Try to avoid this by centering and setting your chosen map scale to feature all land mass and populated places within the main map frame, centered on the map page:

• Class 1 Map Submission Examples

---

Resources

QGIS Documentation: includes the User Guide, Training Manual, and Gentle Introduction to GIS

Open Source Geospatial Foundation: includes news and information about projects, conferences, and community

Natural Earth Data: Original data source utilized for this Assignment 1

---